Hide-And-Seek
by Siobhan Daley
Summary: A pair of Hogwarts students play a dangerous game of Hide-And-Seek with a Deatheater during the Battle of Hogwarts.


Prompts 4 (word "chasing"), 7 (Reducio), 9 (word "history")

Everything was in complete chaos. Flashes of every color flared inside and out of the castle. In the turmoil, it was nearly impossible to distinguish friend from foe, the only easily discernible difference being the Deatheaters' all-black attire. Men and women from both sides were casting spells, getting hit, or falling to the ground dead. Everywhere, people were either fighting or running away, some more successful than others.

A pair of seventeen-year-olds fled, never letting go of the other's hand as they flung every spell they could think of at the Deatheaters chasing them. Curses flew past their ears, sometimes coming close enough to graze their hair. Their hearts raced even faster whenever a spell came to close, terrified it would be the last one to miss.

The girl pointed her wand over her shoulder and, remembering the usefulness of simple spells, she shouted, "Reducio!" The pursuing Death eaters shrunk and slowed down significantly, giving the pair enough time to flee into the castle. Crashes, shouts, and screams echoed through the wrecked corridors from the battles raging throughout the castle. Even inside, spells and curses from both sides flew astray and crashed into the walls, smashing ancient stones that had stood throughout history to pair fled down into the dungeons, finding them mostly deserted. They twisted and turned through dark corridors, constantly checking over their shoulders, afraid that their pursuers would appear behind them.

"In here!" the boy opened a seemingly random door and pulled them both through it. The room was darker than black, but both youths were too afraid to light their wands, in case the glow could be seen through cracks in the door. Instead, they shuffled through the suffocating blackness until they found s suitable place to hide: A bookshelf set askew from the wall, holding dozens of long-forgotten textbooks. They squeezed behind it and clung to each other as tightly as they could, as if they would be torn away if they so much as loosened their grip. It was so dark. So cold. So silent. It was like a tomb.

Footsteps.

The tomb suddenly felt more like a prison cell on death row, and the two of them the prisoners awaiting their fate. The girl trembled in absolute fear. Never before had she been so afraid. The boy held her tighter, though for whose comfort, it was unclear. Neither of them spoke a word or took any more than the most miniscule of breaths. To their ears, it seemed that any sound at all would give them away like an alarm blaring in the silence.

It seemed like years had gone by, and the blood-chilling tap of shoes on stone still hasn't passed. "Oh where, oh where, have our Romeo and Juliet gone off to?" a madwoman sang out in the corridor, giggle at the end of the tune, "Come out and play, dears. Don't be shy! I know you're down here!"

The girl's heart pounded in her chest so hard and so loudly, she was sure the Death eater on the other side of the door would hear it. She clutched her partner's black jacket for dear life, praying to every diety she could think of to please, _please_ let them live.

The sound of breaking glass cut clear through the door like a bullet. The boy's arms pulled the girl closer to him. She could hear his heart beating as heard and fast as her own. Something made of wood smashed to bits in the room being searched across the hall and the Deatheater singsonged and taunted the pair to come out of their hiding place. Everything suddenly went silent for what felt like hours before a sound that made their hearts stop. The handle on the door to their room had begun to creak.

The Deatheater's entry halted completely at the sound of a loud crash from one of the other rooms down the corridor. Her footsteps disappeared in the direction or the noise, quickly returning the chamber to its tomblike illusion.

"Should we make a break for it?" the girl breathed, eager to escape, but afraid that doing so would get them killed.

The boy mulled over their options. If they tried to escape, they might make it out, but if they were spotted, they would probably be dead before they had reached the second door down. Then again, if they stayed where they were, they were sitting ducks. At the same time, they might be able to prepare an ambush from where they were. "We should stay here," he decided, "She'll see us if we leave, and we could get the jump on her if we stay here."

Before they had enough time to come up with a plan, their pursuer returned, singing, "Come out, come out! I'm going to find you!" She giddily hummed a sinisterly cheerful tune as she loudly overturned everything in the room. Crates were torn open and smashed, old bookshelves pushed over and their contents scattered across the floor. It seemed that, more than anything, she knew where they were and was trying to torture them rather than uncover their hiding place.

For just a moment, everything was still. Neither of the youths took so much as a single breath, dreading the impending discovery of the spot they were hiding in. But before long, the barrier between them and their enemy was blown to bits, leaving them exposed to the grinning woman. "I found you, dears," she crooned, "Looks like our lovely little game of hide-and-seek is over. That's too bad. I was just starting to have fun."

The Deatheater pointed her wand at them, ready to end the game. The pair of teens hugged each other tightly and whispered their tearful last goodbyes to eachother as they waited for the end.


End file.
